Interesting Article on Creationism in Britain

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2006-02-22 12:21am

Article Link

A bit scary, that Creationism is taking such a foothold in biological sciences. But what's more scary is the fact that Christian and Islamic fundies are working in tandem.

FSTargetDrone · Post by **FSTargetDrone** » 2006-02-22 01:29am

A section of that article I found particularly disturbing:

Most of the next generation of medical and science students could well be creationists, according to a biology teacher at a leading London sixth-form college. "The vast majority of my students now believe in creationism," she said, "and these are thinking young people who are able and articulate and not at the dim end at all. They have extensive booklets on creationism which they put in my pigeon-hole ... it's a bit like the southern states of America." Many of them came from Muslim, Pentecostal or Baptist family backgrounds, she said, and were intending to become pharmacists, doctors, geneticists and neuro-scientists.

Wonderful, eh?

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2006-02-22 03:11am

Related to the topic, untill the last months I was naïve to think something like this would never be a problem here in Belgium. But in the last 2 months...
- I came along a creationist/anti-evolution website
- spoke about Idiot Design and someone turned out to actually be a creationist
- I saw the news airing a docu about evangelism on the rise in Belgium

... makes me suspect it's actually breaking trough here as well, although they are far less vocal then in the US (yet?)

Hopefully I'm just overreacting

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2006-02-22 03:12am

wautd wrote:- I came along a belgian creationist/anti-evolution website

editted

mr friendly guy · Post by **mr friendly guy** » 2006-02-22 04:38am

Most of the next generation of medical and science students could well be creationists, according to a biology teacher at a leading London sixth-form college. "The vast majority of my students now believe in creationism," she said, "and these are thinking young people who are able and articulate and not at the dim end at all. They have extensive booklets on creationism which they put in my pigeon-hole ... it's a bit like the southern states of America." Many of them came from Muslim, Pentecostal or Baptist family backgrounds, she said, and were intending to become pharmacists, doctors, geneticists and neuro-scientists.

I would be interested to see them debate. I am willing to bet that their arguments are articulate, but not rational. I am also willing to bet to compensate they will rely on various "facts" and expect you to disprove it instead of providing evidence to back up these "facts"

Hillary · Post by **Hillary** » 2006-02-22 07:02am

SyntaxVorlon wrote:Article Link

A bit scary, that Creationism is taking such a foothold in biological sciences. But what's more scary is the fact that Christian and Islamic fundies are working in tandem.

No surprise to me. This is a country after all in which a large percentage of the population has more faith in homeopathy than traditional medicine - "well it's natural, innit"

Crystal healing, astrology, palmistry, tarot reading - for some reason it's not now the done thing to simply laugh at these charlatan practices. Once you start to accept the unsceintific as more worthwhile than the scientific, it's no wonder that Creationism is moving on to the agenda.

With our God-fearing fuckwit of a PM, I can see this getting political support. Is there anything in the world as retarding as religion?

Dartzap · Post by **Dartzap** » 2006-02-22 07:50am

With our God-fearing fuckwit of a PM, I can see this getting political support. Is there anything in the world as retarding as religion?

Hmm? Last i checked it was his oh-so-wonderful-and-anoying-wife that was the religious one in residence at number 10?

On topic. I have yet to meet more than five religious people in college in the last two years. It must just be down here that we don't have many

In fact (and much to my amazement) several people started booing some American missionries that were visiting recently. Religion is just not very popular for the fishermen, I guess.

Hillary · Post by **Hillary** » 2006-02-22 08:08am

Dartzap wrote:
With our God-fearing fuckwit of a PM, I can see this getting political support. Is there anything in the world as retarding as religion?
Hmm? Last i checked it was his oh-so-wonderful-and-anoying-wife that was the religious one in residence at number 10?

Hmmm, it's not Cherie who is pushing the agenda for an increase in single faith schools. She may be even more of a bible-basher than him, but he is certainly a strong believer in the morality and righteousness of religion.

Dartzap wrote:On topic. I have yet to meet more than five religious people in college in the last two years. It must just be down here that we don't have many In fact (and much to my amazement) several people started booing some American missionries that were visiting recently. Religion is just not very popular for the fishermen, I guess.

Religion is actually very popular in many fishing villages in the South West. I have a holiday cottage in St Ives - last time I was there, the local paper was full of condemnation of civil ceremonies for gay couples. Several of them quoted the bible without any embarassment whatsoever. I found this bizarre when Cornwall is a stronghold for the Liberals, but there you go

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2006-02-22 08:15am

wautd wrote:Related to the topic, untill the last months I was naïve to think something like this would never be a problem here in Belgium. But in the last 2 months...
- I came along a creationist/anti-evolution website
- spoke about Idiot Design and someone turned out to actually be a creationist
- I saw the news airing a docu about evangelism on the rise in Belgium

... makes me suspect it's actually breaking trough here as well, although they are far less vocal then in the US (yet?)

Hopefully I'm just overreacting

There's a creationist society in Flanders, but they've been around for decades. Not exactly a new thing - neither are the occasional Idiot Design followers, especially in the more narrowminded Catholic cults.

Considering that even Christian schools fellate Darwin and paint ID'ers as idiots, I'm not all that worried

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2006-02-22 08:20am

There's a creationist society in Flanders

++http://www.creabel.org/

^^found it. You can actually taste the bullshit

Dartzap · Post by **Dartzap** » 2006-02-22 08:22am

Religion is actually very popular in many fishing villages in the South West. I have a holiday cottage in St Ives - last time I was there, the local paper was full of condemnation of civil ceremonies for gay couples. Several of them quoted the bible without any embarassment whatsoever. I found this bizarre when Cornwall is a stronghold for the Liberals, but there you go Confused

Ah, Cornwall.. the one county which still thinks we live in feudal times

Also St Ives isnt really that representitive of the South West as a whole, as it's Cornwalls Hippy/Artist stronghold, who often are rather wacky anyway...

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2006-02-22 08:48am

Bounty wrote:
There's a creationist society in Flanders

^^found it. You can actually taste the bullshit

Great, now I've spilled coffee everywhere when reading that

Seems they used a more professional webdesigner since the last time I've visited it

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2006-02-22 10:39am

The National Secular Society: Join me now and fight idiocy.

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Interesting Article on Creationism in Britain

Interesting Article on Creationism in Britain

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